Tag: artober
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I better not mess this one up. I painted as much as I could without a thorough drying session, and I’ll plan on finishing tomorrow. I love the bright colors! The heavy line is a tree shadow, so hopefully it’ll fit in better by the time I finish. But those clouds! This is shaping up to be my favorite painting yet.

In Puppy News, Lucy finally figured out how to get down the back stairs by herself!

…And I’m entirely unimpressed. The trees are too dense. This is from another YouTube tutorial, which called for what looked like a flat bristle brush (used for acrylics), which I used. The result doesn’t look much like the tutorial. Meh.

I’m not calling it a fail because there’s no one big fail. It’s just…meh.

And anyway, I’m tired. The annual All-Day-Work-Meeting Marathon, known as Staff Development Day, had me at the Bossier Civic Center well into the afternoon. I had a surprisingly good time (I always do), but I’m tired.

I also had to stow Penny at daycare and Lucy with the vet (at 9 weeks, she’s too young for daycare), so there was lots of driving around town involved.

But that’s okay. After yesterday’s success, I can take a failure. Anyway, it was another tutorial. If the line had been much more subtle, it would have been fine. The rest of it is fine. As a matter of fact, I like it. If this were acrylics, I could fix it, but I can’t fix watercolor.

Watercolor is still my favorite. It takes more skill than acrylics because it’s so much easier to mess up. That said, I’ve messed up an acrylic before.

So the lighthouse is done. I’m not entirely happy with it, but it definitely qualifies as good enough. In case you didn’t see my progress post, it’s from this tutorial video by The Frugal Crafter on YouTube. I’m just plain ol’ not confident enough to paint something on my own right now, and that’s okay. I’ll get there.

If nothing else, my mom likes this painting. I gave it to her and she framed it and put it up in her living room. Then, of course, she sent me a picture:

I don’t know what I’ll be up to next. I want to finish that acrylic, but even though my amazing husband (who is participating in the actual Inktober) had a puppy slumber party last night, I’m still EXHAUSTED. One thing I would like to do is revisit this WordPress theme choice. The super ultra large images bother me, though I know they’re the current trend. I’ll have a look around and probably just keep this one because me.

Yeah, I’m back on watercolors today. I needed a break from blue-land, so I figured I’d try a sunset. It’s another tutorial, this time from The Frugal Crafter. I could finish it tonight, but I’m so tired I can barely see straight, and I’m pretty sure I could sleep for a year.

I’m definitely feeling better about this one than about my last watercolor effort, so that’s something. On there so far are cadmium yellow, quinacridone red, and a mixture of that red and ultramarine blue. It’s not totally dry yet, so it’ll get a bit lighter.

I also picked up the rose I talked about yesterday. I’m about 90% sure quincridone rose and permanent rose are the same pigment, and Michael’s didn’t have quicridone, so permanent it is. It’s a little pinker than that quinacridone red. I also got some brown madder, which is also a quinacridone, which I’ll probably try tomorrow.

Yep, I just added more trees. I’m soooo slow at painting that it took me an hour. Okay, I did it and redid it (especially that misty bit at the bottom, which still needs work). Arts are hard! I’m really happy with this one so far.

I also filled my Portable Painter palette. Well, almost, because I have to get quinacridone rose tomorrow. I hope I can find it locally.

I’m waiting for them to dry. Hopefully I’ll be able to try them tomorrow after I get the rose. I have a purple I like (dioxyzine), but The Internet says that I need a rose instead because it’s more versatile. I figure I can always change it later. See? Progress!

In Puppy News, Penny taught Lucy how to climb the stairs to the porch, but she didn’t teach her how to get down. Lucy likes to climb them but then whines to be carried down. Sigh.

Yeah, it’s only the 4th, and I’ve already reevaluated my life decisions. Trying to create a complete painting of any sort every day is tiring to the point of torturous, especially since I have an 8-week old puppy to keep track of. So instead, I’m letting myself take a few days to finish a painting and posting my progress here. That, and as I thought I would do yesterday, I retreated back to Acrylic Tutorial Land, and those always take longer than watercolor. Possibly the main reason that’s the case (at least for me) is that acrylics are so forgiving – if I don’t like something, I can paint right over it. I rework and rework and rework, and it usually turns out acceptably. A watercolor would be plain ol’ rurnt.

Anyway, here’s my Day 4 effort. I painted the background yesterday and did a little editing and added the trees today. Tomorrow will be more trees. I probably won’t finish then, but I might. If you’re wondering what it will (hopefully) look like at the end, check out this tutorial by Angela Anderson on YouTube.

In other artsy news, I got my Portable Painter today! I can’t wait to take it outside and paint! Except I have to choose what colors to put in it first. I’ll post an update when I do.

Yeeeeah, as you can see, today, I lost. Spattering is my mortal arts enemy. This isn’t my first run-in with it:

Okay, this one’s acrylic and maybe isn’t entirely ruined, but those are some stringy snowflakes. According to a very friendly Facebook group, I should have lain it flat (I put it on an easel outside) and watered down my paint a bit more. So it goes. (Btw this painting comes from an Art Sherpa tutorial. I’m pretty sure I’ve evangelized about her before. She’s definitely my favorite YouTube art teacher!)

But this one. This one is a plain ol’ FAIL. I got the idea from a couple Pinterest pins that made it look way easier than it would be. And yes, I know that’s how Pinterest functions. I’ve decided that it’s okay that the painting sucks and learned never to try spattering again (okay, not for a very, very long time). I also used too much water on the ground, but that was because I was super frustrated by that point and wanted to be done.

So why am I sharing this crappy painting, you ask? Because I said I’d post every day, and I am SO DONE for today. My water bucket is empty, and it’s staying that way. I think I might retreat to acrylics tomorrow.

(Btw I’m taking all of these painting photos on my front porch because my library light is really yellow:)

In other, more disturbing news, this GINORMOUS wolf spider spent the day hanging out right by the door I use to get into work:

I actually like this one! AND alllll that black is ink! This is the first time I’ve ever used ink, and I like it. I used Dr. Ph Martin’s Bombay India Ink undiluted, and it was smooth. I’ll probably use it again soon, though I am so not committing to actual Inktober. I didn’t even look at the prompt, anyway (It’s “divided.” I could probably use my English degree for an excellent explanation on how this painting fits into that theme, but meh.).

I started with a YouTube tutorial but ended up doing it a good bit differently. I like mine better!

Palmer is obeying the actual rules, and here’s his. He’s so good at illustration.

You’ve probably heard of Inktober, the annual Nanowrimo of the art world. Well, they have a specific rule (you know, using ink) that I don’t like, so I’m making my own damn tober. My goal is to make an art every day through the whole month. I’m not limiting myself to medium, and I’m not using a bound journal, so I’ll just call this a loose interpretation. I do what I want.

You might also know that I’ve been learning to paint. As someone with only one drawing class ten years ago under her belt, I have no idea what I’m doing. I started with YouTube tutorials, specifically with The Art Sherpa, who paints with acrylics, and The Frugal Crafter, who uses watercolors. I’ve amassed a collection of art and art supplies, and I’ve even painted several watercolors without using tutorials.

I am soooooo not saying I’m any good at it, and that’s okay with me. Or at least I’m trying to make it okay with me. It’s about the process, right? Well, that featured photo is my #Artober attempt for today. I’ll try to post a new one every day, and hopefully I’ll get a little better by the end of the month. My favorite part of this one is the grass – I’m actually pretty proud of that part – and my least favorite is the background trees. It would have worked better with trees that went over the top and trees painted over them with gouache. It also would have been better if I would have not added the orange at the end. Meh. But! I learned how to dry-brush in grass, and that’s something!

Here’s a painting a I like a lot more, though in my head it doesn’t count as much because it’s from a YouTube tutorial on how to paint trees. I definitely didn’t follow these directions when I painted those birches, but hopefully someday soon I’ll see the results of all these tutorials in my original paintings. Or I’ll just give up and paint a bunch of tutorials and nothing else. There sure are enough of them around the internet.

And oh, yes, there are puppy pictures. Those are coming, but they need their own post, and I could barely scrape together time to paint that landscape and write this post.